Interlude
by SJ Cloude
Summary: They didn't find the need to voice out their claim on each other. Shiki Senri x Touya Rima. One-shot.


Author's Note: This is a break from Possession: Aegri Somnia, something to make me think clearly again on how to write the ne

Author's Note: This is a break from Possession: Aegri Somnia, something to make me think clearly again on how to write the next chapter. But nevertheless, I hope you'll enjoy this little piece! I'm not sure if I'm getting their personality right though.

By the way, a little piece of news about Possession: Aegri Somnia, I was wondering if you guys would be interested having a stand alone one-shot version of Chapter 5 – Castle in the Sky with Yuuki being a vampire, and it not being a dream. Please vote in the poll on my profile, so I can count more efficiently.

Thank you!

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight or the characters involved here.

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_Interlude_

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His eyes were cast downwards when they first met, as if something the patterns on the marble flooring were much more interesting than her, and it irked her, that a boy like him would consider ignoring Touya Rima the way he did.

She wasn't exactly a vain girl, but she was confident that she was pretty – pretty enough to catch _his_ attention anyway.

But obviously it wasn't as obvious as she thought.

So she spent just one more moment staring down at him before deciding to head back to where her mother was laughing gaily with the mother of some spoiled brat named Hanabusa. She hated this place and she wanted to home where no one would be allowed bother her.

"Wait."

The voice froze her on her toes and she turned back, a mild expression of annoyance on her face. "What?" she said, in a tone that her mother would have scolded her for.

Shiki Senri's eyes still looked bored even though he was staring right at her. He let his gaze from her perfect face to the red dress her mother chose for her tonight and to her small white shoes. Then, the smallest of smiles curved his lips, an action so sudden at she blinked away her annoyance.

Shiki Senri's smile curved larger, almost awkwardly as he patted the small space beside him. "Stay."

Rima scowled at him but he seemed not to care as he continues to look up at her with an expectant look. He looked better smiling, even though his lips were rather graceless as they curved. "Fine," she mumbled before dusting the small ledge with her pale hands and daintily sitting next to him.

"Shiki Senri."

She studied him for a moment and wondered what response was he after.

"I know."

The brown haired boy tipped his head a little to his right. "You're supposed to say your own name after," he told her.

Rima drew her eyes away from him and trained them on her mother standing not far away.

"But I don't want to."

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-

Shiki Senri didn't bother to lift his hand and stifle the loud yawn bound to disturb the stillness of the class. The professor purposely ignored him and continued with his lecture in his low monotone voice. He then slouched lower into his seat in utter boredom only to receive a sharp poke on his right side.

"Ouch," he said, non-too softly which received a few irritated stares from Ruka and Aidou and a warning glance from the dorm president, while he turned and faced his attacker. "Why'd you do that?" he asked in a lower voice, his expression passive despite the slight irritation he felt.

Rima met his eyes, she was as bored as he was, he could say. "You're disturbing the class," was all she said before she turned her attention back to the teacher.

Shiki harrumphed and frowned, "I want to go back."

"It'll be over in an hour and a half."

"Too long."

"Nothing I can do about it."

He paused for a moment, deliberating whether or not he should risk another walk out on this class.

Though Kuran Kaname would probably 'talk' to him afterwards.

"I'm hungry," he told Rima instead.

She cast him a sideway glance and for a minute he thought that there was a glint in her eyes that said he was starting to act childish before she slipped her slender fingers into the pocket of her skirt and took a small box of pocky out.

"Here," she handed it to him without looking, "You can have this."

His expressionless eyes stared at the box for a second before taking it out of her hand, "Its strawberry."

"Obviously," she answered.

"Don't you have chocolate there?"

"No."

He shrugged then, "Fine, but you owe me."

She glanced at him again, probably resisting the urge to raise her brow at his statement. But she quickly understood the meaning behind his words anyway, he didn't want chocolate pocky, he wanted her blood.

Rima leaned forward and propped her hand on top of the table and played with the ends of her pigtailed hair. From the corner of her eye, she silently watched Shiki as he quietly bit down on his third stick of pocky, taking his sweet time munching lazily until barely a centimeter was left of the whole still before popping it into his mouth.

He caught her staring then and he raised a brow, "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," Rima replied before looking back at the board.

"That's all for tonight," their classic language professor said before closing his own book and walking out the door before any one could respond.

Shiki abruptly straightened and leaned his chin on the edge of the table in one fluid motion. "Rima, let's go," he said.

"You're going to get scolded for this again," she replied flatly.

"I won't hear the end of it from Ichijou-san either," he agreed, taking a tentative glance on the vice-dorm head who was chatting animatedly to Kuran Kaname who just stared at his book and nodded once in a while. His gaze met with hers again, "Let's go then," he said again, but kept still in his seat.

At times like these she wanted to ask why he always had to wait for her because it wasn't as if he was trying to be a gentleman, and she'd probably die of shock if he did. Nor did he wait for her like this in every occasion. Then as she thought of this, something inside her head clicked.

Right, her payment.

"As long as I don't get any scolding," she finally said before standing up.

Kuran Kaname's head shot up and met with her eyes, "Touya?" he inquired with his soft, velvety voice.

She bowed her head a little, as a sign of respect before speaking. "Shiki wanted to get something," she explained.

The brown haired boy, who was half standing looked at her, "Me?" he asked with feigned confusion.

The pureblood's gaze moved slid towards Shiki, "Go ahead then," Kaname finally said, but in a tone that definitely promised a scolding.

Rima caught the smirk on Shiki's face before it disappeared as fast as it appeared and Ichijou, who suddenly chuckled seemed to have caught sight of it too. This was getting too obvious, she mused as she made her way out the classroom with Shiki just a few paces behind her, their steps in synchronization. Once they were out the door, the sounds of their footsteps echoed through the empty hall. It was still comfortable, they both realized, despite the heavy silence that any other being would have found unnerving.

"Ichijou-san is starting to get a little annoying," Shiki suddenly said, in his ever deadpanned voice.

She kept up her pace and he did the same. "Why is that?" she asked just for the sake of conversation, since she already knew what he was thinking about.

"You know."

He's jumping into annoying conclusions, his words hung unvoiced in the air.

"Uh huh."

They continued mumbling broken sentences between themselves, finished by their silent thought they knew the other understood, and it was as if they shared this unbreakable mental bond that enabled them to communicate through their thoughts.

"Look who came…" Shiki's mumble trailed of as a familiar female figure skidded into a halt before them.

"Touya-senpai, Shiki-senpai…" Kurosu Yuuki blinked at them. "What are you doing out so early? Classes won't end for another fifteen minutes."

Shiki opened his mouth to reply when Rima interrupted him. "President Kuran allowed us an early leave Ms. Prefect," she answered with perfect grace, knowing fully that if she let Shiki answer, he'd spout something unpleasing for the human girl.

"Kaname-senpai did?"

"Rima," Shiki reminded impatiently.

She rolled her eyes, "If you'd excuse us, Ms. Prefect."

Yuuki seemed to snap out whatever daze she got into and nodded hastily, "If Kaname-senpai gave you permission then let me escort you to the gates…"

Rima nodded curtly and started walking again, not bothering to look back at the prefect whose footsteps were unevenly matched with hers and Shiki's.

"I'm really thirsty now," Shiki commented out of the blue, jerking his head back at Yuuki despite the fact that Rima's back was facing him.

"When are you not?"

"Hm," his tone took on a rare playful note. "I guess your right."

She glanced at him as they entered the gate leading to the Moon Dorms, "I always am."

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Touya Rima fingered the stem of the rose delicately between his index and third finger, careful not to touch the thorns. Her mind wandered aimlessly, from thoughts about Italian food, her upcoming work schedules, how Shiki was, that she was too lazy to go to the modeling agency that afternoon and to whether or not Shiki Senri would be alright.

"I wonder if Shiki would be fine returning home…" she babbled to herself, forgetting that Ruka was but a bush away from her, already with a handful of roses cradled against her chest.

"Shiki?"

Rima nodded, "He went back home to visit his mother," she explained.

"I see," Ruka replied, then quickly loosing interest as she spotted another blue rose that she thought Kaname might like.

Rima sighed quietly, it _displeased_ her, she realized, that she didn't know when that unruly haired boy would return. It felt odd, like having half your body over an open fire and half of it freezing, whenever she worried about him.

_About that insensitive, selfish, spoiled brat_.

Straightening herself, she plucked just one more rose before heading back inside the cottage. She lifted the newly plucked flower to her nose and took a little sniff before letting her hand fall to her side before making the rose shrivel and wither while continuing to absently play with the other one. She gasped a little when a thorn imbedded itself against her finger.

Such utter carelessness, she hissed before hastily pulling the thorn out and dropping the red rose altogether. She watched the tiny drop of blood with forced patience as it dribbled from the tip of her finger down her palm before licking it.

Her face scrunched up in annoyance, it tasted like soil and fresh leaves. At the back of her mind she could hear a familiar languid voice whisper…

"_Worrying never does you any good." _

But she couldn't help it.

"This is your fault," she muttered almost bitterly as she stared at the healing wound.

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Shiki roughly pushed her against the wall when they finally arrived inside her room where the prefect's human scent wasn't distracting him anymore. He pressed himself against Rima's smaller body and propped her higher with his knee so that he could easily lean against her neck.

"You don't want that human anymore?" she asked, her voice still flat as if his actions weren't affecting her in anyway.

He paused, barely a millimeter above her neck where blood pulsed the strongest, and said, "She did smell good."

"Too sweet," came her automatic objection.

His eyes flashed, "Jealous?"

She didn't answer.

"I thought so too."

A soft snarl escaped her lips as she pushed his head away from her neck, an action he didn't fight but he pulled the black ribbons holding her hair with him. Both of them just stared at each other for a moment, their ever passive expression unfaltering.

"I prefer the bed anyway," Shiki said, breaking the silence and successfully pushing the petite girl down on the soft cushion of her bed with both her hands pinned above her head by one of his, the other around her waist. "You should just wear your hair down; it makes you smell more inviting."

A ghost smile flitted in her lips, "Who am I inviting?"

Shiki frowned then, realizing the double meaning of his earlier statement, "Interested in someone else?"

"Should I be?"

He pressed himself closer, and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "Tell me."

Rima angled her head in a challenging look, "Maybe."

"I'll have his head on a platter for you."

His answer came so fast and sure that she couldn't repress the small smile that broke out on her lips. "Jealous?" she asked back.

He didn't even try to hide it. "Naturally."

Shiki pressed his lips on the over her forehead and let it teasingly skim over her eyelids, past her cheeks and down to the side of her lips. "This game is starting to get boring," he murmured as he bit the side of her jaw, hard enough to leave a mark but not break the smooth skin there.

Rima rolled her eyes and lifted her hands, which lay motionlessly on her side, to run up his clothed back and to his neck. "You started it," she reminded her before closing her eyes as she felt his fangs scrapping random patterns over her collarbones and towards the side of her neck.

"I couldn't help it."

He darted his tongue out to taste her skin, his hold on her body tightening.

"You're mine Rima."

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Author's Note: Yay! Finished! I hope you all liked it! I had quite a challenge trying to keep their personality intact, but I hope I did well! Send in your comments, suggestions or questions, they're very much appreciated. I hope this wasn't too confusing; technically, the first part is when they were still kids, the second and the fourth are connected (which is another scene outside the manga/anime) and the third one was based on volume 6.

I've never written Shiki x Rima one-shots before but they're as enjoyable as Kaname x Yuuki ones, you could all expect some more of these in the future, and of course, I'll try to get their personalities right next time.


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